An Expression of Community

2022 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Pottawattamie County, Iowa, IA

Image of AchievementAwards_extension_bkg_0.jpg

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

In response to the early-2020 arrival of COVID-19 in Council Bluffs, IA, the Pottawattamie County Public Health Department (PCPH) and its “Public Health Leadership Team” (“PHLT”) planned and executed a high-profile series of local, no-cost mass-vaccination clinics that ran from December 2020 to May 2021, and saw 55,000+ doses distributed to some 30,000 area residents. In all, 38 of these events were offered, in order to provide vaccination opportunities to as many people as possible; the first clinic served about 500 attendees, with this daily total soon climbing to 3,000. The PHLT’s goal was to get everyone “in and out within 20 minutes”—a standard that was reached almost without exception. In delivering these clinics, the PHLT combined existing resources (such as the venue, a large, multi-purpose facility) with an innovative new four-step vaccine-delivery protocol to make these clinics available to people from throughout the area. Additionally, the involvement of the residents of Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County proved essential here; indeed, to a great extent, the clinics were staffed, delivered, and supported by the local volunteer, non-profit, and business communities—along with elected officials, and employees from other County departments.

Tagged In: